DO area for red wines, rosé wines and, since 2019, also white wines in the Castile-León region in the north of Spain. It stretches along the Duero River (which subsequently crosses the Portuguese border where it is called Douro) for a length of 115 kilometres and a maximum width of 35 kilometres. The economic centre of the region is the town of Aranda de Duero in the province of Burgos. To the west of Ribera del Duero are the DO areas of Cigales, Rueda and Toro. Éthere is a very old viticultural history. In 1972, near the village of Baños de Valdearados, a Roman mosaic almost 2,000 years old was discovered, representing the deity Bacchus with Ariadne (goddess of passion) and Ampelos on a size of 66 m². By the end of the 19th century, the vineyard area had grown to 50,000 hectares. Phylloxera, mildew and the agricultural policies of General Francisco Franco (1892-1975) led to a crisis in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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Hans-Georg Schwarz
Ehrenobmann der Domäne Wachau (Wachau)